Middle East

On its 75th birthday, Israel still can’t Agree on What it means to be a Jewish State and a Democracy

By Eran Kaplan, San Francisco State University | – As Israel celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding, and nearly a century and a half after the first Zionists came to Palestine from Europe, the core tension behind the country’s establishment – whether a Jewish state could be a democratic state, whether Zionism could accommodate […]

China

China and the Axis of the Sanctioned: How America’s Divide-and-Rule Strategy in the Middle East Backfired

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com) – A photo Beijing released on March 6th of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign minister Wang Yi* delivered a seismic shock in Washington. There he was, standing between Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban. They were awkwardly shaking hands on an […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey’s presidential Election – how Erdoğan defied the Polls to head into Runoff as Favorite

The Conversation

By Salih Yasun, Indiana University | – Turkey is heading toward a presidential runoff election on May 28, 2023, after no candidate won more than half the votes in the first round – the barrier needed to be declared an outright winner. Incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has ruled the country for two decades, defied […]

Food Insecurity

Poor Iranians Sell Their Organs Amid Deepening Economic Crisis

Golnaz Esfandiari

One-third of Iran’s population reportedly lives in extreme poverty. Some people are so poor that they have resorted to selling their organs on the black market to make ends meet. (file photo) Share (RFE/RL ) – I’m RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari. Here’s what I’ve been following during the past week and what I’m […]

Featured

United Nations for First Time Recognizes 1948 Israeli Ethnic Cleansing (Nakbah) of Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Today, May 15, for the first time a commemoration will be held at the United Nations HQ in New York City of the 1948 ethnic cleansing of about half of all the Palestinians, the bulk of which was carried out by Jewish military forces, as Israeli intelligence admitted at the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Military Apologizes for Killing US Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Year after the Shooting

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel’s military has apologised for its killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, after a year of denial of its responsibility for the shooting. Shireen Abu Akleh, the correspondent who covered the West Bank for Al Jazeera for two decades, was shot in the back of the head […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Nakba: 75 years after losing their Home, the Palestinians are still Experiencing the “Catastrophe”

The Conversation

By Dina Matar, SOAS, University of London | – When Palestinians commemorate the Nakba (the catastrophe) on May 15, they are not only remembering a violent historical event that took place 75 years ago which led to the uprooting of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. Nor just the destruction of more than 400 villages […]

Israel/ Palestine

On One-Year Anniversary of Israeli Army Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh: Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable

Committee to Protect Journalists

. ( Committee to Protect Journalists ) – The May 11, 2022, killing of Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh is part of a deadly, decades-long pattern. Over 22 years, CPJ has documented at least 20 journalist killings by members of the Israel Defense Forces. Despite numerous IDF probes, no one has ever been […]